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Monday, December 14, 2009

Unemployment Diary: Day Three A Retrospective


Well, it isn't taking me long to get used to this. I mean, honestly, I'm already too used to it. Now we need four semi trucks stuffed with hundred dollar bills to pull up in front of the house and I'll never have to go back to work. I chose four because five just seems greedy.

Now I'm playing catch up because Friday got away from me.

Chloe asked me to ride over with her to her school and at first I declined because normally the thought of giving away five more hours to riding in the car is not something I'd relish. But since all I have is time, I turned it around and thought "Hey! An opportunity to hang out with my kid without the din of sibling rivalry making me wish I'd tied them into sacks and tossed them into the river! Why not?"

Turns out, it was a lovely drive. We discussed deep issues like how are kids going to learn classical music these days if they're not exposed to it during the copious viewing of classic cartoons? We followed that discussion with a hummed duet of the chorus from Carmen. Talk about generational differences. When I hear that piece, I think of Gilligan's Island. When she hears it, she thinks of Hey, Arnold!

My father in law, may he rest in peace, just snapped his conducting baton in half wherever he is.



17 comments:

  1. Oy on the language....what a lovely child.
    Do you really let him drink those?
    So happy for you that Chloe is home for a bit..enjoy her!!!

    Your son will outgrow his need for cursing......or someone else will as you said, bring him down a notch......nature has it's own way!

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  2. There's nothing like the sweet sounds of siblings plotting revenge.

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  3. Oh, Anita. Yes, I do let him drink those, but then we lock him in the garage until the effects have worn off. (He'll get his one day, I know it.)

    susan - if only they put the same kind of energy into trying to cooperate with each other. Fantasy, I know.

    giggles - that's a pretty good description.

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  4. What makes you think he'll outgrow foul language, bad behavior, being opinionated and the rest?

    Chances are he'll meet girls who say and do the same things. And his real or potential peer groups are far more reinforcing of those values than you might think.

    Bad behavior is a lot like smoking - very difficult to quit.

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  5. For those of you reading this post later, note that I took some items out. Id' written about some joking that went on between Nathan and Chloe, but as Bill pointed out with his very nice, but concerned comment, I didn't do a very good job of conveying that the joking was just that - joking. So I removed it because I don't want you to get the wrong idea about my kids.

    Thanks,

    The Management

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  6. Figiro figiro figiro......

    Send one of those trucks my way and then maybe I can keep up with my blog life, my social life, an my writing life....

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  7. Chloe's on to something. If it hadn't been for Bugs Bunny, I might never have discovered Rossini.

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  8. Kill the wabbit, kill the wabbit, kill the wabbit...

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  9. Glad you enjoyed your mother daughter excursion. If you see that truck driver, send him over here next.

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  10. some of the best classical music is in the cartoons!

    so glad you and chloe got to spend some quality time together.

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  11. it sounds like you both had a lovely time...as someone said, treasure these moments.

    I am so thrilled you are enjoying your unemployment!

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  12. Kill the Wabbit! Kill the Wabbit!

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  13. Even after showing my kids the CDs, I'm still not sure they believe that Wagner wrote that, and not Bugs Bunny.

    Your kids never swear. Got it. Sure. You betcha.

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  14. LOL. You are so funny.

    My sister's a classical musician, and I don't think she much cares where people get their references, as long as they're still hearing the music somewhere. It's definitely an art form in retreat, as are so many others (correspondence and conversation, to name a couple that I miss more every day). We are a culture in a time of transition.

    Glad to hear you're using your transition time to such a good effect!

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  15. Yeah, that whole stay-at-home thing does become quite cozy. From Feb., 05 thru July, 06 I was a stay-at-home-Dad and grew a little too used to it, if you know what I mean.

    When we moved to Poplar Grove, I took the ever-popular truck driving class, got the ever-popular Commercial Drivers License, and became a trucker, my week spent zooming about the Midwest delivering goodies, my weekends trying to catch up on sleep and family life. While I will always be glad I did it, for all the money I was making, most of it went in to keeping me on the road all week - it created more expense and hassles than it was worth. Plus, I missed my family. Sleeping in a truck cab loses its romance pretty quickly (as does stepping out of your cab three days before Christmas in the Twin Cities; who knew so may people could live where it's so freakin' cold?!?).

    So, I grok, lady. Just don't get too cozy . . .

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  16. I get all of my classical music from Savatage, TSO, Korpiklanni, Epic...

    Classical music sounds better to me if it involves electric guitars and guttural screaming.

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